Cruelty of Brown.—Forts Cornwallis and Grierson.—March toward Augusta, of Clark and M'Call.
garrisoned the fort with a strong force. Brown, as we have seen (page 710), was an early victim of Whig indignation at Augusta, his native place, and he used his power, while in command there, with a fierceness commensurate with his wrath. He sent out detachments to burn the dwellings of patriots in his vicinity, and dispatched emissaries among the Indians to incite them to murder the inhabitants on the frontier. * His command at Augusta consisted of two hundred and fifty men, of several corps, principally of Florida rangers; two hundred and fifty Creek and fifty Cherokee Indians; in all, five hundred and fifty. The defenses consisted of a strong fort, situated on the northwest side of the town, upon a bank about one hundred yards from the river.
This was the main work, and was called Fort Cornwallis. A little less than half a mile westward of Fort Cornwallis, was a swampy ravine extending up from the river, with a stream running through it. On the western margin of this lagoon, between the present Upper Market and the river, was a smaller work called Fort Grierson, so named in honor of the militia colonel who commanded its garrison.
About the first of September,1780 Colonel Elijah Clark, a brave partisan of Wilkes county, Georgia, and Lieutenant-colonel M'Call, made efforts to raise a sufficient force to capture the fort at Augusta, and drive the British from the interior of the state to the sea-coast. These were the brave partisans who fought at the Cowpens a few months later. Clark recruited in his own county, and M'Call went to the district of Ninety-Six and applied to Colonel Pickens for aid. He wanted five hundred men, but procured only eighty. With these he marched to Soap Creek, forty miles northwest of Augusta, where he was joined by Clark, with three hundred and fifty men. With this inadequate force they marched toward Augusta. So secret and rapid were their movements, that they reached the outposts before the garrison was apprised of their approach.Sep. 14, 1780 The right was commanded by M'Call, the left by Major Samuel Taylor, and the center by Clark. The divisions approached the town separately. Near Hawk's Creek, on the west, Taylor fell in with an Indian camp, and a skirmish ensued. The Indians retreated toward the town, and Taylor pressed forward to get possession of a strong trading station called the
* Brown's authority was a letter which Cornwallis had sent to the commanders of all the British outposts, ordering that all those who had "taken part in the revolt should be punished with the utmost rigor; and also that those who would not turn out should be imprisoned, and their whole property taken from them or destroyed." Every militia-man who had borne arms in the king's service, and afterward joined the Whigs, was to be "immediately hanged." This letter was a foul stain upon the character of Cornwallis. It was a "lash of scorpions" in the hands of cruel men like Brown. "Officers, soldiers, and citizens," says M'Call (ii., 319), were brought up to the place of execution, without being informed why they had been taken out of prison. The next morning after this sanguinary order reached Augusta, five victims were taken from the jail by order of Colonel Brown, who all expired on the gibbet.
** Fort Cornwallis occupied the ground in the rear of the Episcopal church, now a grave-yard. This view is from within the inclosure, looking northeast, and includes a portion of Schultz's bridge, the Savannah River, and Hamburg upon the opposite bank. In the foreground is seen portions of the church-yard wall, and upon the brink of the river below are negroes employed in placing bales of cotton upon the wharves for transportation, to the sea-coast. The wharves are two stories in height, one to be used at low water, the other when the river is "up." There were remains of the ditch and embankments of the fort within the grave-yard when I was there; and the trench leading to the water-gate, where the "Pride-of-India" tree is seen, was very visible.
Skirmish at the White House.—Brown wounded.—Defeat of the Americans. Fate of Prisoners.